Intracellular cytokine expression in T cells from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Functional disorders of T lymphocytes play an essential role in abnormal immune response in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The aim of this study was to assess the profile of cytokines expressed by T cells derived from patients with CLL. We have demonstrated that the intracellular levels of IL-2, IL-4, IFN-γ, TNF, IL-6 and IL-10 were significantly higher in T cells of CLL patients than in healthy donors. Moreover, the percentages of CD4+/CD3+/TNF+, CD4+/CD3+/IFN-γ+, and CD4+/CD3+/IL-2+ cells were significantly higher in ZAP-70-positive patients compared with ZAP-70-negative ones. Likewise, significantly higher percentages of CD4+/CD3+/TNF+, CD4+/CD3+/IFN-γ+ cells were observed in CD38-positive than in CD38-negative cases. What is more, there was a significant difference in median percentage of CD3+/CD4+ cells expressing TNF, IL-4, IFN-γ, IL-2 or IL-6 between patients carrying the 11q22.3 deletion and/or the 17p13.1 deletion and patients without these genetic aberrations. Our results confirm the functional disorders of T cells in CLL and their influence on the clinical course of the disease.